Cleanup
by nekkid-nora
Summary: AU, oneshot, SasuSaku. A fairytale in which a fairy shows up on Sasuke's doorstep and asks to stay the night. Based off a french pop song, by Indochine.


_"Il était une fois_

_Quelque part dans un pays_

_Un pays qu'on ne connaît pas_

_Une fée_

_Qui avançait dans le froid_

_Avançait dans un mauvais temps_

Tonight" 

I like fairies. A song called "La Nuit des fées" (Night of the Fairies) by Indochine has been my lulaby too many times to count, and it always reminds me of Sakura. It recently gave me a dream along these lines. If you'd like the full lyrics and/or a translation, you just have to mention it in a review. And please, do review! I need crticism: I'm new to writing.

Also, I'm simply borrowing a few of Kishimoto-sensei's characters. Mine never really make me as happy.

- - -

There was no moon tonight. Not that one could tell with all the snow, or the clouds it came from, but he had heard someone at the supermarket mention it today. The stars were blocked out as well and all he could make out from inside the house were the swirls of snowflakes as they passed by. His name was Sasuke. He lived alone now, though he'd had a family long ago. His brother was a killer; his parents had been killed. He had no friends: most of them thought him depressing.

He was dark because he was alone, mostly. He was dark because he needed someone now, and he'd needed them for years, and no one was there. Because those he needed, he absolutely couldn't have. He would see his parents around the house when they weren't there, and his brother's face was behind his eyelids every time he closed his eyes. Tonight was no different from every other night, until he shut out the lights to go to bed.

The knock on the door was soft and weaker at the end, as if the knocker was too tired to keep knocking. He only heard it because the house was so quiet. He had no reason to answer the door this late, of course, but curiosity and a desire for anything out of the ordinary pushed him across the house to the front door. He opened it without hesitation.

The girl on the porch looked frozen. Her eyes were wide and her cheeks were covered in the tiny frozen droplets of tears that had never made it to her chin. Her coat was worn and looked much thinner than it had once been, and the skirt sticking out the bottom of it certainly wasn't doing anything to keep her legs warm. A scarf was wrapped around her neck tightly. Her hands were bare, and Sasuke had a sneaking suspicion the feet that were sunk into the deep snow were, too. Her ears were uncovered and a bright red, and from what he could see under the layer of snow, her hair was pink. She was an unattractive sight with her runny nose and blue lips, and Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her. She tried a smile.

"My name is Sakura, sir, and I need shelter for the night. Would you mind...?" she asked, and Sasuke narrowed his eyes in consideration. She certainly looked like she needed it, and the house was big, but he liked his privacy. Sakura quickly continued. "I'm sorry it's so late. I won't be noisy, I promise, and I won't bother you. I can clean, and cook, I could make it up to you..." she trailed off as Sasuke snorted softly.

"Shut up." He stepped back and let her in, shutting the door behind her. She followed him down the hallway in uneasy silence. "You can sleep in here."

Sakura peered into the room with a folded futon in the corner. There was nothing else in there. Sakura stepped in slowly, then turned to her host.

"I'm sorry, but you haven't given me your name!" She blushed furiously at the glare that followed, but she got her answer. Sasuke. And Sasuke had just disappeared into his bedroom.

-

The empty room had belonged to his brother, she knew. There was a faintly angry taste to the air, and a smell like candles just put out. Violence. The rest of the house had given her glimpes- a fight here, a bitter remark here, a wave of barely supressed anger there. This had been an unhappy house. Now it was a very sad one. Sakura smiled brightly and settled into the futon and warm duvet for the night.

-

It was near sunrise when Sakura woke up to the sound of Sasuke's moans. She walked into his room hesitantly. It was a nightmare. Sakura climbed onto the bed, kneeling next to his chest, and shook his shoulder softly. Sasuke's eyes opened wide, and his shivers stopped after a moment, when he finally saw the strange girl. He was still mostly asleep, she knew, or he would have told her to leave. He only stared at her curiously now as she stroked his face and smiled.

"Go back to sleep, Sasuke. It was a nightmare," she told him. "Everything'll be alright soon."

Sasuke closed his eyes and turned to spoon against her legs, her arms and forehead coming to rest on his back and shoulders, and let the warmth comfort him. By the time he awoke, she was sleeping in her own room. He was sure it'd been real. He just didn't think to ask what she had meant.

-

She was meant to leave the next morning, but Sasuke let her stay. He said he didn't care, as long as she wasn't annoying. He was gone all day, anyway. Sakura smiled and nodded when he told her, and said she would stay only a bit longer. Then Sasuke was gone.

She worked all day, cleaning. There was not a speck of dust in sight that morning. There was not a shred of a spider web in the corners, and no scratches could be seen on the paint of the walls. No fingerprints and barely any dishes to be done.

But there were scars. Ugly things that marred the walls and ran down into the floor, or terrible stains on the furniture- stains that were thick and didn't want to come out, and that left an imprint on the fabric of the sofa even when she had finally scrubbed it clean. The burnt out smell was stronger in the dining room and the study, and Sakura felt the illogical urge to open windows as soon as she entered them. It would do nothing but make the house cold, and she'd had quite enough cold to last her a year.

She stopped when she reached the master bedroom. There was a moist feeling in the air and the odor of flowers was stale and decayed- that of a despairing mother. This had been her refuge, and Sakura was shocked to find that she felt like an intruder in this room where the woman had let loose her deepest emotions. This grief was different than the one she'd felt in the rest of the house. This one was deeper, and more lasting. It was perhaps even deeper than what she had noticed in Sasuke's room the previous night, and she bit her tongue and got to cleaning, knowing that if she stalled now, she would never get it done. It took hours, longer than any other room in the house.

-

When the door opened and Sasuke came home that night, Sakura was only just starting to doze off. She'd chosen a seat in the drawing room near the door, and shot up at the sound. When she greeted her host, it was with a grateful and embarassed smile.

"I knew I should have left during the day, but I didn't want to leave without thanking you properly, so I thought I would wait. I'll be going now, then."

Sasuke stared at her with a stern expression for a moment, not really focused. He was trying to decide what was different about the house. In the end, he decided it was simply the presence of another person. Whatever it was, he was reasonably sure he liked it.

"It's dark. You can leave tomorrow morning." There was a moment's pause, and his brow was still creased, unsure of what exactly he was missing. "What would you like to eat?"

At Sakura's beaming smile, Sasuke felt his lips tug slightly and he thought that maybe, whatever it was, it didn't matter. He could always think about it later.

-

Sakura had tried to leave the next morning, getting all the way to putting on her scarf before Sasuke rushed out of the study, looking for all the world like he was going to shout at someone. When he took her arm and dragged her to the window, Sakura merely followed, silently opening her mouth in confusion.

It was snowing outside, and the wind was beating at the windows. Sakura wondered how she had failed to hear it before now. The weather was much worse than the night she had arrived and her host was scowling at her, berating her for being so stupid. There was no way anyone could walk out in there. If she left now, she would simply wind up on a neighbour's doorstep, and it wasn't worth her bothering anyone else. Before Sakura could even protest, he had quieted her and stalked back into the small room she had worked so hard on the day before, intent on finishing his business correspondances.

-

She soon grew tired of reading the walls. No matter how much she read, the stories in this house were always the same. Some were happier, but even then, they were often tinted an ugly yellow by the brother's thoughts, which were scribbled inbetween the lines everywhere, as if he himself had penciled them in out of spite. As if he had found this to be a release for his anger, although she knew he hadn't. He had exploded, and no matter what she did to the kitchen, it would never be clean. There would be stains. All she had done was remove the dried puddles.

Sasuke found her in the drawing room later that morning, playing with a pen and staring at a fire she had started. He sat down in the chair across from her sofa and stared with her.

The pen stopped its flips as Sakura's fingers stilled. It had stopped snowing now, and she didn't know why she was there anymore. One quick glance at Sasuke confirmed the feeling in the pit of her stomach: she didn't want to leave. A second glance away from the fire, this time to the window, caused her to frown, and she looked around herself slowly. The room was spotless and although she could see the kitchen and its mess from her own seat, she could no longer taste it, and the smell was so faint she had to focus to pick up on it. With a sigh, she put the pen on the table. Sasuke still didn't look at her, although he shifted comfortably in the chair, sinking slightly lower. Sakura had to smile at how peaceful he looked. Maybe he would fall asleep right there, if she didn't disturb him.

"I..." Sakura began, stuttering slightly when Sasuke blinked out of his trance and shot her a stunned look, although he didn't seem unhappy. "I need to get going. I've got a long way to travel, and I should go while it's sunny."

Sasuke stared at her for a second, then stood and turned to the window. His back was straight and his shouders were once again squared, and she could guess at the frown on his face, although she couldn't see.

"I suppose so. Do you need a ride into town?" he asked, and when he turned to her, Sakura blushed.

"I'm not going that way, really. I'll be fine walking." Sasuke looked at her sternly, but soon nodded his consent. Funny that he had to give it. Funny that she felt she needed it.

-

In the end, Sasuke had fitted her with a pair of old boots (these were large and long, and felt warm and full despite how small her feet were, and she knew they had been his father's, worn only when he wanted to take a slow and leisurely walk. They were scuffed and had been loved.) as well as a pair of gloves (taken from his mother's dresser; she had washed them yesterday) and a scarf he wrapped around her head and shoulders. Sakura was a blushing now, conscious of the honour he was paying her, although he himself didn't seem to think of it. As she stood awkwardly at the door, gathering her resolve and inching towards the doorknob, Sasuke took her gloved hands in his.

"Thank you," he said quickly, then he blushed slightly. With a frown, he hesitated, looking torn, then dropped her hands. He had no clue what he was thanking her for, but he wasn't going to take it back. Besides, the smile that grew on her face now, reaching up into her eyes, which were now a glowing shade of green (in a very literal way, much to his amazement), told him that she knew exactly what he was referring to.

She leaned into him and planted a kiss on his cheek, then another on his lips. "You're welcome, Uchiha-kun. You always will be."

-

Sakura left without leavng him a chance to answer her. He stood by his door for several minutes after it had closed behind her, trying to come to a conclusion. His lips burned, as did the back of his hand when he reached up to touch them. The fire in his cheek he felt was spreading, and soon he had walked back to his room, as far away from the front door, the drawing room and the fireplace as he could get. He wasn't uncomfortable. He was just warm enough, for once.

- - -

cough Uhhh, no, it's not supposed to be very specific. Yes, she is a fairy. No, I'm not a fan of SasuSaku, and I don't know where it came from. No, he never gave her his family name. Yes, you're supposed to fill in the blanks on your own.

I actually wrote this almost a year ago, and only found it a last week. I still like it. I'll be happy forever if you review!


End file.
